“Looks Like Weird is the New Normal.”
I vaguely remember the picture book Ferdinand. The cover sticks out to me more than the content, although I could have given you a one sentence summary if I had to. When I saw it was turned into a movie a few years back, I was curious about it, but I waited until I could catch it on TV.
For those who aren’t familiar with the character, Ferdinand is a bull (voiced by John Cena as an adult and Colin H. Murphy as a youth). While he is at a ranch that raises bulls for the nearby bull fight, Ferdinand is more interested in stopping and smelling the flowers. So he is happy when he finds a way to escape and settles into life on a flower farm. However, when he grows, he accidentally causes a catastrophe and winds up back at the ranch. Will he be able to escape? Or is it his destiny to enter the bull fight?
This movie faced a hurdle that any movie faces that takes a picture book and turns it into a movie – how to fill an hour and forty-eight minutes with a story that was initially told in a book that takes five to ten minutes to read. One obvious way is to introduce new characters and give us backstory. This movie does both, and uses them to good effect. While I know that the movie was expanding a storyline, I didn’t feel like much of the action was blatant padding.
On the other hand, much of the action was aimed at kids. I get it, this was an animated movie based on a picture book. I’ve definitely been spoiled by the animated movies that aim at the entire family audience. There’s nothing wrong with aiming this movie more at kids, but I didn’t find the movie as funny as I wanted to.
I can well imagine kids loving this movie and begging to see it over and over again. Ferdinand’s side kick would appeal to them. I did find a wild chase through town to be fun, and I’m sure kids will love that, too.
The voice cast isn’t filled with names I recognized, but sometimes that can be fun because it allows you to more fully get lost in the story. That’s certainly the case here. Likewise, the animation is perfect for this film. It’s cartoony, but considering the subject matter, it works.
Ferdinand is a fun movie for kids. There is little here to make this a must see for adults, but I can see it being one kids will enjoy over and over again.
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